Millwall boss Gary Rowett: Now we can be judged if we don’t win Championship matches

Gary Rowett reckons now is the time to judge his Millwall side with his attacking options coming back into the mix.

The Lions have drawn six of their opening nine Championship matches – the latest coming in a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Matt Smith had headed the South Londoners in front only for Max Lowe to equalise with a cross that flew over Bartosz Bialkowski and into the top corner of the net.

Jed Wallace is available for tonight’s home match against Bristol City after recovering from illness. On-loan Liverpool winger Sheyi Ojo only recently returned to the squad after being unavailable for the same reason.

Millwall are on a five-match unbeaten run but have drawn their last four in a row.

“If you look at the fixtures last season I think we’ve taken more points from those relevant fixtures [this time],” Rowett told the South London Press. “There haven’t been many of the drawn games where we haven’t felt we could have got more out of those.

“We desperately want to win and you can look at Saturday and say we haven’t had much fortune in trying to do that, another thing just goes against us, but at the same time we just need to get that last little five or 10 per cent to go and earn that win with what we do on the pitch, rather than hoping variables work off it.

“We’ve put in some solid performances and we’re a hard team to play against. We look a decent team but to look a really good team we have to be converting those moments in the final third. It is something we work hard to do and it’s something we have to demand off each other.

“We’ve gone 1-0 up in games and then on Saturday we’ve had three or four set-pieces to go and get that second goal and the delivery has been poor or we’ve not got on the end of it. We demand more in those moments because they are the ones that can win you games of football – at the moment we are giving an opportunity for the opposition to hold on or get back in games.

“We need a little more ruthlessness. But with the players coming back and attacking options being back available, I think it is fair to judge us if we don’t win games. I expect us to win games.”